


And then we wait

by indigomuffins



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 11:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5496167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigomuffins/pseuds/indigomuffins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a war going on, jedi, death, and all that comes with it.  But someone has to be there when he wakes up, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	And then we wait

The galaxy doesn’t stop spinning just because one person won’t wake up. Wars still need to be fought, losses need to be mourned, and jedi who decided to hide off in some distant system need to be found and kicked into gear. All of this is stuff Poe knows, the Resistance being really all that’s left to hold the galaxy out of the First Order’s claws now that the Senate and its ships no longer exist. All of that has to come before one person who won’t open his eyes.

But his heartbeat is steady, strong in his chest and in a constant rhythm on the monitors. At least Poe assumes that it’s watching Finn’s heart. He doesn’t really know what else the pulsing light could be, moving in a steady pattern along with the quiet breathing. Finn’s chest rises and Finn’s chest falls. Nothing changes and Poe has to go back to work. The Resistance needs him for missions, the ace pilot with a knack for not ending up dead despite his best efforts. 

On mission though Poe can’t help but feel like he’s holding his breath. So he ends up back at Finn’s bedside as soon as he’s cleared from debrief. Sometimes there’s someone else there, a doctor, Chewbacca, he’s even caught General Organa in here a few times. But usually it’s just him and the guest of honor. 

“You know you were a better conversation partner before.” Poe points out, arms crossed as he takes his vigil. There’s no point in being silent. Maybe somewhere in there Finn can hear him. Even if he can it doesn’t seem to pull out anything from him than more silence. “Not that I mind the sound of my own voice, far from it.” 

Poe talks, filling up the silence. Finn listens, or at least Poe likes to think he does. He likes to think that Finn absorbs all of this, that when his eyes finally flutter open it’ll be more than just loss and pain from whatever it was that happened on Starkiller. Maybe he hopes a little that Finn won’t reach out for Rey and find out that the Jedi isn’t here. There are more important things that have to happen, a Jedi needs to be trained and there’s only one Jedi left that Poe knows of who can do that. Sometimes when Poe wants to be selfish he hopes that when Finn does wake up that he’s not alone, that it will be in one of these moments where the chatter fills silence and Poe will get to see the light spark back into his eyes.

One day there’s a chair. Sure he could question it but what’s the point in that? Once or twice he falls asleep in it. After that once or twice he just decides that maybe sleeping in a chair isn’t all that bad. It’s his spot. 

“Doctors say it might be soon.” General Organa’s voice is new, cutting into the amicable silence of waiting for Finn to reply.

Getting to his feet is instinct born from respect. The General isn’t expected, but she’s not unwelcome. There’s the small, pained smile of acceptance as Poe moves out of the way to offer line to his seat, his spot. Leia doesn’t take it, instead she takes her place next to Finn and looks down at him. In the light of the medical unit Poe could almost swear he sees the weariness that flits in the shadows of her face. The entirety of her life’s work, the New Republic, the man she loved, and the son she wished to find again, all of it had been thrown back in the General’s face. And yet she was here, looking after a man she hadn’t known but who had done his best to help the Resistance only to end up here. 

“Not many people are able to say they’ve lived through the same.” Leia’s voice is soft as her hand sought out the top of Finn’s head for a moment, as if to reassure him that it was all right.

For a moment Poe’s smile matched, tight but practiced as his own hand found the edge of the table. “Oh I’ve been telling him all about how he should play it once he finally gets over his beauty sleep. Scars are very popular and most don’t have nearly as good a story.”

There’s a gruff sort of chuckle as she shakes her head. “Glad to hear you’re already planning his next bit of trouble.” Her eyes left Finn even as he hand stayed, a connection to the man who had left the Order and managed to save the Resistance and maybe even the galaxy for just a little while longer. 

But Poe had been working under the General for far too long to not know the look in her eyes. It was the same look he had seen her give his mother, a look of concern but discipline as business came to the forefront. While the General might have cut her rebellion teeth as a politician, Poe always appreciated that she tended to stray away from obscuring the issue unless it had to be done. 

“Something tells me that I’m going to have to find someone else to keep the sleeping princess company.” Poe sighed with a labored shrug.

Instinctively his fingers curled towards Finn’s, pulling the still hand into his own. “Duty calls. Try not to cry.” It was easier to tease than deal with why it felt like a betrayal just to leave. Even if Finn woke up while he was gone he wouldn’t be alone. The base thrived with people, with a surge in recruits after the destruction caused by The Order. 

“I’m sure he’ll forgive you.” Leia’s eyebrow raised quickly as she allowed her hand to fall. “Though I wasn’t aware he’d managed a coronation on top of getting a lightsaber.” 

“The things he gets up to in here, General. You wouldn’t believe the half of it.” Finn’s hand is warm in his own, still alive even as he still can’t seem to wake. The doctors have done their best, Poe’s seen them work miracles before. He just needs to see them work this miracle. 

“Maybe he’ll tell me all about it.” The affection turns to business though and Poe finds himself on orders again.

His mother once told him about a princess who slept. Days and days went by, turning into weeks and she stayed entranced within her own dreams. The galaxy moved past her as no one knew what to do, the planet mourning a princess who was not dead but was not alive. Hope began to fade and her people fell into despair. It wasn’t until a man whose heart beat true found her and pressed an innocent kiss to her lips did she wake up. 

Granted the princess hadn’t been stabbed with a lightsaber and barely survived. 

Finn should be awake. The Resistance needed him, the galaxy needed him, and Rey would need him when she finally returned from finding Luke Skywalker. And maybe Poe needed him a little too. He was under no illusions what his chances would have been in Ren’s hands. He also knew where they would be without Finn’s knowledge of Starkiller base. The galaxy needed that man to wake up, and maybe it needed the light that seemed to shine when he smiled too. There was enough darkness, Poe didn’t want to see another piece of the light wither and die before his very eyes. 

“You can do this.” Poe whispered to no one and to Finn. Another day, another mission, and now Poe was back and was supposed to be getting some sleep. He was tired, his eyes blurring on the edge to remind him just how much so. Still he wasn’t as tired as Finn was. Maybe he just needed to stay awake for the bother of them, it was an idea crazy enough that it just might never work at all. 

A sigh lifted his body and Poe pulled himself to his feet. Maybe crazy was what needed to happen here. Poe and crazy were good friends, they generally got along despite how many times crazy had nearly gotten him killed. It was the nearly part that he was proud of. Crazy seemed to like Finn well enough too, who else could have inspired the stormtrooper to break him out and make a mad dash for freedom. Somehow it had all worked out up until the part where Finn was here instead of smiling, his arms quick to wrap firm around Poe’s shoulders.

No one had ever looked at him quite the same way Finn did. There was no describing it, a floating warmth that had Poe leaning over the man on the table, just hoping that maybe hope really was enough. 

“You don’t need anymore beauty sleep, you’re already gorgeous.” There was no reaction to his words, there never was. Poe’s hand reached out to mimic Leia’s from only a few days ago, soft against Finn’s skin. Not that it would work, touch didn’t seem to draw Finn out of whatever this was. It was hard to imagine that the man who’d fallen into a hug so quickly would be so still.

It almost felt like somehow Finn was waiting, but Poe had no idea for who or what. Maybe it was Rey, the future Jedi who had helped draw him into this mess as much as Poe had if not even more. Word from her had been spotty and as far as Poe could gather she had managed to find Skywalker. If that was true, well, all the more reason for Finn to wake up for when she got back. Or maybe it was the Force, in all its infinite and confusing wisdom and wants. Having a Jedi around might be handy for figuring that out.

“You have to wake up before Rey gets back, you know that right?” Poe sighed as he watched the calm, sleeping expression that seemed to be all there was to Finn now. “I’m not going to be the one dealing with how sad she can look. I imagine pretty sad, and I’ve a weakness for that. I cannot be held responsible for what happens if she starts pouting at me.” 

There were times when the hand of the Force did make itself known, or at least Poe thought. Instinct and the Force seemed almost like the same thing as his parents had described it, this knowing that called out in moments that Poe just learned to listen to. He wasn’t a Jedi or a force user or anything like that, but sometimes the gut knew more than his mind did and there was only one choice but to follow it. 

Usually it was in the seat of a ship. It wasn’t an exaggeration that he could fly anything, the hum of metal and mechanics flowing through his fingertips and almost guiding him to what he needed to do. But the whispers weren’t always in the air, sometimes they were just as familiar with the planes of Finn’s face as Poe watched, waiting for something to happen that never seemed to quite make it through. It couldn’t be because Finn wasn’t fighting, there was no way the former trooper would have come this far only to stop when they still needed him. 

The skin of Finn’s forehead was just as warm as his hand, alive but still. Or at least it should have felt the same, instead of the quiet buzz of electricity against Poe’s lips for a fleeting moment before pulling back. The stories said a kiss might work, and maybe the Force liked fairy tales as much as Poe did. It was fleeting, a kiss taken without permission and as Poe looked down he couldn’t help but wonder if it as unwanted as well. If Finn never woke up then Poe would never know, to accept or apologize as was needed. 

All he wanted was for Finn to wake up.

Sinking back into his chair, Poe took a deep breath to ward off despair. Finn stayed silent and all Poe could do was keep vigil another night longer. Falling asleep here was beginning to feel as normal as a bunk or wherever else Poe managed to end up sleeping these day, drifting off to the blinking lights and the steady motion of Finn’s chest.

He wasn’t entirely expecting to wake up to BB-8’s whirls, a trill that brought him back up with a smile as sleep fogged his eyes. “What’s that?” Poe brushed his hand over his eyes, focusing in as the change in the steady quiet breathing next to him registered.

“What’s going on?” Finn’s voice was raw from disuse, his head rolling to the side as he caught sight of Poe.

Poe didn’t even know when he’d gotten to his own feet but there he was, smile wide enough to hurt as he reached out for a hand that now curled back around his own, acknowledging he was there. “Look who’s finally up.” he felt out of breath and Poe realized maybe he didn’t have to hold it any longer.

**Author's Note:**

> The original title is "I am trash and this is Poe". It might still be the title in my heart.


End file.
